This move has been seen as a small part of the company’s wider strategy to counter the exponentially expanding territory of Facebook and to maintain relevance as people use social networking as much as searching to access information.

As a part of this plan, Google may also incorporate social media contents into its search results.

Just few months ago, Google launched its “+1” button, which was obviously the company’s answer to Facebook’s “like” and Twitter’s “follow” buttons.

The +1 feature allowed Google users to vote for individual search results to make future search results more personalised.

Considering how photo albums are an inseparable part of Facebook, Photovine is an even more direct challenge to Facebook's social media dominance.

The only question that remains is what is going to become of Picasa, Google existing photo sharing service, when the Photovine finally makes it to the market. It's not clear if Picasa is being abandoned or simply rebranded under the Photovine name.